What “International” Sub-Topics Are Crucial to Business Education?
A Survey of Management School Professors
______________________________________________________________
Farok J. Contractor
Rutgers University
School of Management
81 New Street
Newark, NJ 07102
(973) 353-5348
Farok@Andromeda.Rutgers.edu
Forthcoming:
Journal of International Management
(Special Issue on the Pedagogy and Domain of International Management)
Volume 6, March 2000
Acknowledgment: I am grateful to Jim Woodley, Ph.D. candidate at Rutgers for computer assistance, and
to Jean Boddewyn for guidance and suggestions on this topic of deep interest to him over 40 years.
Indeed, Prof. Boddewyn was the initiator and co-leader of the seminars on International Business
Pedagogy from which the data in this paper were obtained. Support from the Rutgers CIBER is also
acknowledged.
What “International” Sub-Topics Are Crucial to Business Education?
A Survey of Management School Professors
_________________________________________________________________
ABSTRACT
The question addressed by this survey is “What ‘international’ topics are crucial
to the practice of management?” The objective of the study was to identify
“international” curricular sub-topics, tools and concepts which faculty respondents
deemed absolutely crucial to business pedagogy and to the practice of management,
and would therefore require in every business program. This survey is one of the few
that addresses the international pedagogy issue from the micro, or sub-topic end of the
spectrum. A list of the topics identified should be of considerable value to curriculum
committees in charge of business school programs. The selections ranged not only over
the six major departments found in most business schools, but beyond. Respondents as
a whole were willing to step outside their narrow departmental boundaries when thinking
about the question of internationalization of pedagogy. The results also seem to confirm
that the bulk of the burden of the internationalization of the curriculum will continue to
rest, principally but by no means exclusively, on two departments, Management and
Marketing.
Key Words: International Management Pedagogy
Curriculum Survey
2
What “International” Sub-Topics Are Crucial to Business Education?
A Survey of Management School Professors
Farok J. Contractor
Introduction
Even though the Academy of International Business was formed in 1959 and the
International Management Division of the Academy of Management organized in the
1970s, calls to “internationalize” the management curriculum were heard insistently in
the US only from early 1980s (AACSB, 1980; National Advisory Board, 1983). Since
then, a number of studies have surveyed management curricula in the US (e.g.
Cavusgil, Schechter, and Yaprak, 1992; Kuhne, 1990; Nehrt, 1987; Douglas, 1989) and
abroad (e.g. Luostarinen, 1991 for Europe; Rugman and Stanbury, 1992 for Canada).
These surveys have used, as a unit of analysis, institutions, or programs. The more
comprehensive of them have broken down their analysis by department, faculty
background and training programs outside the main curriculum (Arpan, Folks, and
Kwok, 1993). Contractor (1997) describes the pros and cons, and vested interests in
various approaches to internationalizing the curriculum, ranging from incentives given to
traditional functional academic departments, to matrix affiliation of an International
Management Center with existing departments, to forming a separate International
Business Department.
Very few surveys however have approached the question in the most
disaggregated way, by “international “ sub-topic. In an approaching era of more
modularized business education, aided in some cases by electronic self-study, it may
be appropriate for curriculum design committees to ask “What ‘international’ sub-topics
must every graduate know?” That is to say, what knowledge components, relating to
3
international management or international aspects of other functional fields, should be
considered absolutely essential to the tool kit of the twenty-first century manager?
Suppose a curriculum committee was given a “blank slate” to design a
management curriculum, unencumbered by the parochial interests of already-formed
academic departments. Of course such an opportunity is infrequent, except in the newly
formed schools. But the approach is to first identify critical knowledge components or
competencies needed by the manager, without initial regard for how the knowledge may
be sequenced or delivered to the student. That would be a later step.
This survey is perhaps the only one that addresses the international pedagogy
issue from the micro, or sub-topic end of the spectrum. (Wright and Ricks (1994) and
Fatemi (1995) list several sub-topics, but these are not rated or ranked in an empirical
survey). It was in this spirit, approaching the internationalization question from the micro
or knowledge module end of the analytical spectrum, that the survey described in this
paper was conducted.
The Survey
In a 1997 survey of 69 business school faculty drawn from various departments
in seventeen schools of business1, the respondents were asked to give their opinions
on “international” topics that they considered crucial or absolutely essential to the
practice of management. If they were on their school’s curriculum committee, which
“international” management topics or concepts would they require students to learn?
1
The schools are in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic states. There is no a priori reason to suspect a bias due to the
respondents’ east coast location.
4
Although this survey goes beyond the domain of International Management, and
was administered to faculty from several functional areas, organizational and
management topics comprise the single largest category of responses. Out of 57 usable
responses, 15 were made by faculty affiliated with a management department.
Moreover, the responses serve to place International Management in the overall context
of the totality of the international component of the curriculum.
Before administering the questionnaire, respondents were verbally informed of
the objectives and approach of the survey, and that they should take a school-wide or
total curriculum approach, and avoid a parochial departmental bias.
Each respondent was initially given 25 “international” sub-topics or concepts, in
random order, drawn from all the departments or functional areas typically present in a
school of business, and spread over the entire business curriculum (Fatemi, 1995;
Wright and Ricks, 1994). See Table 1, Topics 1 through 25. These are by no means a
complete list, but were described to the respondents as being only examples of the
micro level of sub-topics that they should define.
Respondents were then urged to write in their own additional required sub-topics
which they considered absolutely essential for managers (since the supplied list of 25
topics was only intended to be a start). This resulted in an additional 47 topics that were
written in, for a total of 72. Several of the written entries were subsequently seen to be
duplicates. These were merged, resulting in a final list of 63 “international” concepts or
topics, considered by faculty respondents to be crucial to business education. Please
see Table 1.
5
Topics 26 through 63 in Table 1 comprise additional topics; many of these are
not properly phrased or expressed, and reflect the way that they were “written-in.”
A perusal of the topics in Table 1 reveals a very wide range of subject areas
covering every functional field traditionally represented in schools of business. They
range from the expected topics such as cross-cultural management, to intellectual
property management in a global setting, to international transfer pricing models, to
technology transfer. No particular functional or departmental bias is immediately
apparent in Table 1 (although a later classification in Table 5 reveals that management
and organization topics are the since largest grouping). Clearly, the listing of a particular
knowledge module or curriculum component does not imply equal weighting in terms of
the time spent on the sub-topic in the classroom. Even though disaggregated, some of
the listed topics are considerably broader than others. For instance, Purchasing Power
Parity is a specific concept and tool in foreign exchange risk management and its basic
concept, with illustrations, can be communicated to students in one to three hours. By
contrast, Cultural Differences and the Practice of Management is a topic that could be
introduced in a few classroom sessions – but could also entail an entire course, or two,
where this sub-topic is further disaggregated into human resource management,
management of diversity, conflict resolution, negotiations and so on. Thus the listing of
a topic provides no indication of the length of its treatment in the curriculum, which will
vary based on the school’s mission and student body. The issue, of the level of
disaggregation, therefore does introduce a possible bias in the later results, but cannot
be avoided, as there is no metric for “one standard knowledge unit” in the business
6
curriculum, and the time devoted to each component would, in any case, vary
depending on the emphasis given to each topic in different schools.
Respondents were then asked to pick, and rank, their top 10 selections (out of
the supplied list and their own additions).
INSERT TABLE 1 HERE
Coding
After the responses were turned in, the topics were then coded, based on
principal “functional” classification according to conventional departments typically found
in business schools. This is shown in Table 2. The “management” area is further
broken down into Strategy (ST), Organizational Behavior (OB) and Human Resources
(HR) in order to give the management area special emphasis in the analysis of results
(although not in the responses – no functional coding was done at the questionnaire
stage in order to give respondents free rein on their listing and choice of sub-topics).
Several sub-topics do not fall within conventional departmental classifications, and
some concepts – from Political Science, Language Studies, and Economic Geography - even fall outside the domain of business schools altogether. These are grouped in
Table 2 under “Other.” The codes applied to each sub-topic is shown in Table 2.
INSERT TABLE 2 HERE
The practice of management, and therefore management pedagogy, is, by its
very nature, eclectic and multi-disciplinary. Several topics straddle two “functional”
domains (to say nothing about the broader strategic implications of narrow functional
tools and techniques). Accordingly, Table 1 shows more than one functional label
attached to some of the topics. Coding for Function 2 is, of course, subjective and
7
requires an estimate of the actual cross-functional use of a particular knowledge
component in teaching2.
Some of the responses turned out to be unusable. The final number of usable
responses was 57.
Discussion of Results
A perusal of the topics in Table 1 reveals an extremely broad range, covering
every single functional area and every department found in business schools. That is to
say, in terms of the collective sub-topic selection itself (as listed in Table 1) there is no
apparent bias towards any department or functional affiliation3. It is well to note, at the
outset however, that the respondent sample shown in Table 3 probably does overrepresent Management and Marketing departments, in comparison with the size of
these departments at most business schools. On the other hand, these are the same
two departments which, in almost all schools of business, are expected to carry the
burden of “internationalizing” the curriculum, and where faculty with the greatest
international orientation are typically housed (Arpan, Folks and Kwok, 1993; Contractor,
1997). In that sense, the composition of the sample and its distribution across
departments in Table 3 may be representative of the internationalizing mission.
2 Cross-functional teaching has not yet developed sufficiently. For example, the economic exposure of
the income statements of foreign subsidiaries is usually taught in Finance or Accounting without mention
of the important strategic and operational consequences of changes in the foreign exchange rate or
hedging on the subsidiary itself and upon the entire global firm.
3
There is a very high correlation in the distribution of responses between department affiliation (Table 3)
and sub-topic functional label (Table 5).
8
INSERT TABLE 3 HERE
The most frequently selected topics are shown in Table 4. It is worth noting that
all traditional business school departments are represented in the top ten rankings. This
shows that respondents see the need for internationalization of pedagogy as embracing
all areas of a business school. Moreover, one topic, from Political Science, whose home
is outside schools of business, was included. This relates to the continuing role of
governments in global operations.
INSERT TABLE 4 HERE
The preponderance of the most frequently selected topics came from
Management areas (such as OB and Strategy) and Marketing. This is understandable
given the fact that most faculty with an “international” interest are housed in these two
departments and the internationalization mandate in most schools is given to these
departments.
Understandably also, because they were written in individually, none of the
write-in responses appeared in the top rankings. Among the written in items, some of
the leading topics were Comparative Advantage (No. 34), International Law and Legal
Issues (No. 28), Internet Resources for Global Managers (No. 30) and Trade
Agreements (No. 42) in descending order of importance.
A much more comprehensive picture of overall patterns emerges in Table 5
which shows the topic selections grouped by functional label. Please see Table 1 for the
functional labels (some have two) attached to each topic. Table 5 gives us an idea of
9
the number of crucial international topics by Function1 (the principal label), Function 2
(secondary label), and by department.
INSERT TABLE 5 HERE
Out of a total of 589 entries, 155 are associated with Management topics. While
Management and Marketing dominate, other areas are also sizable. In fact, if we were
to combine Finance and Economics, which are often found in one department at many
business schools, their combined count would be 146, second only to Management,
with Marketing a distant third. Even international topics associated with MIS were
recorded 19 times, and under OTHER, International Social Issues appeared 50 times,
and Political Science 43 times.
Summary and Conclusions
The question addressed by this survey is “What ‘international’ topics are crucial
to the practice of management?” and therefore “What ‘international sub-topics are
crucial to business education?” This paper represents the results of a 1997 survey
conducted on 69 business school faculty members from 17 universities in the eastern
United States who attended seminars on Internationalization of the Business
Curriculum. The objective of the study is to identify “international” curricular sub-topics
which respondents deemed absolutely crucial to business pedagogy and to the practice
of management, and would therefore require in every business program.
This survey is one of the few that addresses the international pedagogy issue
from the micro, or sub-topic end of the spectrum. A total of 63 sub-topics were identified
10
from 57 usable questionnaire responses. These, in turn, were grouped by functional and
departmental affiliation. A list of the top ten selections, as well as the total list of 63,
should be of considerable value to curriculum committees in charge of business school
programs. This paper does not address the issue of how to introduce these topics into
the business curriculum, in what sequence, and by which department. Nor does it
suggest their weights, or how much time may be devoted to each sub-topic. This survey
was only concerned with identifying crucial tools, concepts, and specific sub-areas of
international management that may be considered absolutely crucial to the practice of
global managers.
A few broad conclusions may be suggested by the findings. First, the list is very
broad-based -- ranging not only over the six major departments found in most business
schools, but beyond that into areas such as Political Science, Language Studies and
Geography. Even areas such as MIS, which may superficially appear to have nothing to
do with international management, were cited several times. Secondly, it is clear that
respondents as a whole, were willing to step outside their narrow departmental
boundaries when thinking about the question of internationalization of pedagogy.
Although the exact extent to which faculty cited topics outside their own areas remains
to be analyzed, the results confirm that the “international” rubric serves to spark crossfunctional thinking. The results also seem to confirm that the bulk of the burden of the
internationalization of the curriculum will continue to rest, principally but by no means
exclusively, on two departments, Management and Marketing. At the least, the
contribution of this survey to curriculum design committees is the selection of the
“international” topics identified as crucial to pedagogy.
11
REFERENCES
AACSB, 1980. Managers for the XXI Century. St. Louis and Bruxelles: American
Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and European Foundation
for Management Development.
Arpan, J., Folks, W., and Kwok, C. 1993. International Business Education in the 1990s:
A Global Survey, Columbia, SC: The American Assembly of Collegiate Schools
of Business.
Cavusgil, T., Schechter, M. And Yaprak, A. (eds.).1992. Internationalizing Business
Education. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University.
Contractor, F. 1997. The Compleat Executive: The State of International Business
Education and Some Future Directions. In Islam, I. and Shepherd W., (eds.).
Current Issues In International Business. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 1997.
Douglas, S. 1989. The Rankings of Masters Programs in International Business –
Comment. Journal of International Business Studies. 20 (1): 157-162.
Fatemi, K. 1995. A Multidimensional Strategy for the Internationalization of Business
Programs. Journal of Transnational Management Development. 1 (4): 19-33.
Kuhne, A. 1990. A Comparative Analysis of Doctoral Programs In the United States.
Journal of Teaching in International Business. 1: 85-89.
Luostarinen, R. 1991. International Business Education in European Universities.
Helsinki: Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration.
National Advisory Board. 1983. Critical Needs in International Education:
Recommendations for Action. Washington, D.C.: National Advisory Board on
International Educational Programs.
Nehrt, L.C. 1987. The Internationalization of the Curriculum. Journal of International
Business Studies. 18 (1): 83-90.
Rugman, A. and Stanbury, T. 1992. Global Perspectives: Internationalizing
Management Education. Vancouver, B.C.: University of British Columbia.
Wright, R.W. and Ricks, D. A. Trends in International Business Research: Twenty-Five
Years Later. 25 (4): 687-702.
12
Table 1: “International” Topics In Management Pedagogy
Topic
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Management Topic or Concept
Function Function
Code – 1 Code – 2
(Primary) (Secondary)
(Supplied in random order)
International Expansion Options (Modal Choice)
Evolution of the firm and FDI.
"Globalization": what exactly does it mean in practice?
Rationalization models in the context of international logistics and global
production
Cultural differences and the practice of management (e.g. management
of human resources, diversity, conflict resolution, negotiations)
International aspects of strategic alliances
The continuing role of governments (e.g. protectionism, strategic trade
theory, political risk)
Alternative organization designs for the multinational firm
Purchasing power parity
Covered interest parity
Forwards, futures and options in foreign exchange
Basic foreign exchange hedging techniques
Economic exposure (cash flow)
Translation exposure (balance sheet)
Basics of international taxation
International transfer pricing (Simple models)
Differences in international markets and distribution
Basic mechanics, opportunities and challenges of exporting and
importing
Pricing and price discrimination in international markets
Theory of optimal pricing in imperfect competition in the context of
multiple currencies
Social responsiveness and managing the external relations function in a
multinational context
International aspects of business ethics
Intellectual property protection internationally
Information technology in the multinational firm
HRM in the global economy
MK
EC
ST
PM
EC
OB
HR
ST
PS
ST
ST
FI
FI
FI
FI
FI
AC
AC
FI
MK
MK
MK
EC
EC
AC
FI
AC
MK
SO
SO
ST
IT
HR
LE
(Table 1 continued on next page)
Table 1 (continued):
Additional Topics As Written In By Respondents
Management Topic or Concept
Topic
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
Function Function
Code - 1 Code – 2
Applied economics and related areas
EC
Financial engineer - international
FI
International law and legal issues
LE
Assimilation of practical business practices in US and foreign countries
MI
Using internet resources for global managers
IT
Difficulties in flows of capital, labor and resources
EC
International marketing
MK
International advertising
MK
Comparative advantage
EC
Analysis of foreign market potential
MK
Issues in negotiations, bargaining agreements
ST
OB
International monetary system & valuations
FI
EC
Organizational studies for IB
OB
Technology transfer
MI
Meaning of multinationality
MI
OB
Differences in external & internal environments and their implications
MI
for IB
Different trade agreements and their importance
EC
PS
Foreign language requirement
LS
Knowledge of some computer applications
IT
Survey and other information processing techniques
MI
Supranational organizations (EU, WTO, NAFTA)
PS
International accounting
AC
Standardization versus tailoring strategy in global markets
ST
International electronic commerce and the internet
IT
International R&D/innovation management
ST
Foreign cultural fluency
OB
Traditional lack of global focus in US and stagnation in our domestic
MI
economy
World geographic and climatic knowledge
GE
Strategic and competitive analysis (risk assessment)
ST
Impact of foreign trade on domestic stabilization policy
EC
Basic economic justification for free trade, limitations on free trade and
EC
the role of regulation on free trade
Appreciation of practices in correspondence, communication forms
MI
(operational focus)
Appreciation of body language and its implications
OB
Location factors
EC
Examining and assessing models for international risk factors (political,
PS
social, economic)
Dumping, GATT, & other rules & regulations of trade
EC
Part of retailing in distribution
MK
Restrictions for retailers in opening stores in foreign countries
MK
(Note: Descriptions reflect the way they were written in by respondents)
14
Table 2: Coding By Principal Functional Affiliation
Department OR Topic







MANAGEMENT
Strategy
Org. Behavior
Human Resources
Marketing
Finance
Economics
Accounting
MIS/Statistics
OTHER TOPICS
- Language Studies
- Production
- Management
- Political Science
- Social Issues
- Legal Issues
- Geography
- Miscellaneous
Specialty
Code
ST
OB
HR
MK
FI
EC
AC
IT
LS
PM
PS
SO
LE
GE
MI
Table 3: Affiliation of Respondents
Department Affiliation
Accounting
Economics
Finance
Management
MIS
Marketing
Other
International Business (as dual
affiliation)
Total (Exceeds 57** due to dual
affiliation of some faculty)
No.
6
5
4
15
5
14
3
10
Principal Teaching In
Undergraduate
Graduate
Total (Exceeds 57** due to dual
affiliation of some faculty)
No.
42
34
76
** No. of Usable Responses = 57
15
62
Table 4: The Most Frequently Selected Sub-Topics By Top Rank
Rank Topic
No.
1
5
2
7
3
22
4
17, 6,
18
(tied
rank)
5
25
6
3, 21,
2, 1
(tied
rank)
7
8
9
10
12
24
8. 11.
15
(tied
rank)
19
Description













Cultural differences and the practice of management
The continuing role of governments
International aspects of business ethics
Differences in international markets and distribution
International aspects of strategic alliances
Basic mechanics, opportunities and challenges of exporting
and importing
HRM in the global economy
Globalization: what exactly does it mean in practice?
Social responsiveness and managing the external relations
function in a multinational context
Evolution of the firm and FDI
International Expansion Options (Modal Choice)
Basic foreign exchange hedging techniques
Information technology in the multinational firm
Alternative organization designs for the multinational firm
Forwards, futures and options in foreign exchange
Basics of international taxation

Pricing and price discrimination in international markets



16
Functional
Area
OB
PS
SO
MK
ST
MK
HR
ST
SO
EC
MK
EC
FI
IT
ST
FI
AC
MK
Table 5: Frequency of Sub-Topics by Functional Label and Department
Department/Topic
 MANAGEMENT
Strategy
Org. Behavior
Human Resources
 Marketing
 Finance
 Economics
 Accounting
 MIS/Statistics
 OTHER
Language Studies
Production
Management
Political Science
Social Issues
Legal Issues
Geography
Miscellaneous
TOTAL
Specialty Frequency By Frequency
Both Functions
Total By
Code
Function 1 By Function 2
Total (1+2)
Department
155
ST
76
1
77
OB
53
2
55
HR
22
1
23
MK
86
1
87
87
FI
72
6
78
78
EC
34
34
68
68
AC
21
23
44
44
IT
19
0
19
19
134
LS
1
1
2
PM
11
0
11
PS
SO
LE
GE
MI
41
50
6
2
7
2
0
13
0
0
43
50
19
2
7
589
17